You can use synthwave on YouTube or Twitch when you have the rights to it, and "copyright free" on a thumbnail does not give you any. Whether a particular track works for your channel depends on three things: the licence it was released under (in particular whether it forbids adaptations), whether your channel earns money, and whether anyone has registered the recording with an automated claim system such as YouTube's Content ID. We run a radio of Creative Commons tracks, and this page uses its real licence mix to show what that means in practice. It is not legal advice, and we cannot promise that any track is safe for every use.
The short answer
Look at the licence on the track, not the label on the playlist. A track under a Creative Commons licence with only attribution (CC BY) is the easiest case: credit the artist and you may use it, including on a monetised channel. Most of our pool is not like that. 73% of the 17,463 tracks in our radio pool carry a non-commercial (NC) condition, and 67.5% carry no-derivatives (ND), which forbids sharing an edited version. Only 88.4% are downloadable at all. The numbers are in the table below.
What licence mix does the radio pool have?
Our radio plays tracks from Jamendo, which publishes Creative Commons music; every track shows its licence badge and links to the deed.
| Licence | Tracks | What the licence asks |
|---|---|---|
| CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 | 11,015 | Credit; no commercial use; no adaptations |
| CC BY 3.0 | 2,812 | Credit |
| CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 | 1,349 | Credit; no commercial use; share alike |
| CC BY-SA 3.0 | 1,140 | Credit; share alike |
| CC BY-ND 3.0 | 733 | Credit; no adaptations |
| CC BY-NC 3.0 | 280 | Credit; no commercial use |
| Other versions (2.0, 2.5) | 134 | Mixed; check each track |
In other words, about 16% of the pool is CC BY, and about 6.5% is BY-SA. The great majority comes with strings. That is normal for Creative Commons music, and it is why we put the licence on screen for every play.
By mood, the pool is dominated by pop-leaning tracks (10,809 on the Pop station (90.7 FM)) and classic synthwave (5,061 on the Night Drive station (92.0 FM)). The Chill station (89.4 FM) has 1,337, the Romance station (97.2 FM) 258, the Dreams station (88.1 FM) 144, the Dark station (94.6 FM) 124 and the Deep station (98.5 FM) 8. If you want a dark or cinematic track for a trailer, the pool is thin, and you will find more in the wider archive, where you would need to ask the artist.
Content ID and claims
Content ID is YouTube's automatic matching system. Rights holders upload reference files, every new upload is scanned against them, and a match creates a claim whose outcome the owner chooses: block the video, run ads on it, or just track its views.[1] YouTube says only approved owners with exclusive rights to a large body of original material can use it.[1]
Two points follow for you. First, a Creative Commons licence does not stop a claim from appearing; the licence is a promise from the artist, while Content ID is an automated match, and the two do not talk to each other. We have not found an official statement that says otherwise, and the Creative Commons FAQ we read does not address it.[4] If a claim does appear, you can dispute it, and keeping the licence page and credit is the evidence you will need. Second, YouTube's own CC BY option has rules of its own: a video with a Content ID claim cannot be switched to a CC BY licence, and anyone reusing CC BY video must credit the creator with title, author, source and licence.[2]
Monetised channels and non-commercial licences
The Creative Commons deed defines a commercial use as one "primarily intended for commercial advantage or monetary compensation".[3] The 3.0 legal code that most of our pool uses says similar: no use "primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or private monetary compensation".[7] Whether a channel with ads meets that is a judgement. Neither text names YouTube ads, and we cannot make the call for you. If the track is NC and your channel earns money, the safest course is to ask the artist for permission in writing, or to pick a track without the NC condition.
No-derivatives matters more for video than most creators expect. The deed says you may not distribute modified material if you "remix, transform, or build upon" the work.[3] And the legal code of the 3.0 licence, the version most of our pool uses, says that synchronising a work "in timed-relation with a moving image" is considered an Adaptation.[7] Put those together and a BY-ND or BY-NC-ND track placed under video is, on the licence's own terms, an adaptation that you may not share. With 67.5% of our pool carrying ND, that is the biggest practical limit in the table above. If you want to use an ND track in a video, ask the artist for a separate permission; do not assume the licence covers you.
All the licences in our pool require attribution. Credit is flexible in form: Creative Commons suggests title, author, source and licence, with a link to the licence, and says no single format is required as long as it fits the medium.[5] The credit line on our radio shows how this can look: "Detaltactic - With the lights out — Detaltactic · CC BY 3.0 · via Jamendo".
Streaming on Twitch
Twitch handles music complaints through its DMCA process and has its own music rules, which have changed over time. We could not load the text of Twitch's music page with our tools, so check it directly before you rely on anything here.[6] Two practical points do not depend on that page. A live stream is also a recording once it becomes a VOD or clip, so what you play can matter after the stream ends. And a Creative Commons licence is permission from the artist, not from a platform: it helps you if a claim arrives, but it does not guarantee that no claim will.
A checklist before you publish
- Find the licence on the track page and open the deed it links to.
- If the licence has NC and your channel can earn money, get written permission, or choose another track.
- If the licence has ND, assume that putting it under video is an adaptation, and ask the artist before you publish.
- If it has SA, check what share-alike means for your video before you publish.
- Put the credit in the video or the description: title, artist, source, licence and a link.
- Keep a note of the track page and the date, in case of a claim.
- If you get a Content ID claim, read it before you dispute it, then dispute with the licence page as evidence.
Where to find music you can ask about
Artist pages on Frekvenci link to where each artist publishes, and that is where to ask for permission. For classic sounds start with the Synthwave list; for darker material, Darksynth. Three companion pages cover the rest: writing the credit line, finding free Creative Commons synthwave and the same licences inside a game build.
Sources
- How Content ID works · YouTube Help
- License types on YouTube · YouTube Help
- Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (deed) · Creative Commons
- Creative Commons FAQ · Creative Commons
- Recommended practices for attribution · Creative Commons wiki
- Music (Twitch legal page) · Twitch · the page text did not load in our tools; read it yourself before relying on it
- Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 Unported (legal code) · Creative Commons